The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Papua Campaign (7/1942-1/1943)

The 7th Australian Infantry Division initiated the 1 October plan by attacking toward Kokoda. At three places Japanese rearguard units set up blocking positions along the trail, and at all three the Australians, supported by Fifth Air Force bombing and strafing runs, enveloped and overran the enemy. On 2 November Kokoda and its airfield were back in Allied hands, and on the 13th the 7th moved fifteen miles ahead to Wairopi, only twenty-seven miles from the Buna perimeter. Japanese troops scattered northward toward Sanananda, where they set up a coastal strongpoint the Allies would have to attack later. But they were off the Kokoda Trail.

"Jungle Trail" by Franklin Boggs. Thick jungles of the Southwest Pacific Area made resupply an arduous process. (Army Art Collection)

The airlift of units to and along the northeast coastal axis went smoothly. In the first week of October an Australian battalion flew to Wanigela on the east side of Cape Nelson, and two weeks later the 128th Infantry flew from Port Moresby to Wanigela. Since these units stood vulnerable to attack from enemy-held islands to the north, SWPA directed an assault on Goodenough Island, closest to New Guinea, by another Australian battalion from Milne Bay. After a firelight with a small enemy force preparing to leave, the battalion secured the island.

The Allied ground advances across Cape Nelson and up the Kapa Kapa-Jaure axis proved severe trials of endurance. Moving across the base of Cape Nelson, the 3d Battalion of the 128th Infantry soon found itself floundering through the knee-deep mud of a malarial swamp. The unit abandoned its planned route and made directly for the coast. When the battalion reached its objective of Pongani by sea on 28 October, many of its men were suffering from malaria and other fevers.

General Sir Thomas Blamey with Lieutenant General Robert L. Eichelberger, leader of the U.S. ground troops in New Guinea, standing in front of a captured Japanese pillbox during the fight for Papua.

In a twelve-day march from Kapa Kapa to Jaure the men of the 2d Battalion of the 126th Infantry struggled against the worst conditions New Guinea could offer. The heat, the sharp kunai grass, the leeches and fever-bearing insects, and the slippery trail broke down discipline, and the troops discarded large amounts of equipment to lighten their loads. The ration—Australian bully beef, rice, and tea—made some sick, and diarrhea and dysentery claimed many. Five days of steady rain from 15 October made heating food and boiling water impossible and forced the men to wade through neck-deep water when crossing streams. At higher elevations the battalion found razor-backed ridges so steep that the men had to cling to vines to maintain progress. One group stumbled and slid 2,O00 feet downhill in forty minutes; it took eight hours to recover the distance. The terrain even forced a change of leaders. The battalion commander suffered a heart attack on the trail and was evacuated to Port Moresby. On 25 October the lead company reached Jaure, its troops starving and sickly, their clothing in tatters, and their motivation to meet the Japanese in dire need of restoration.

American and Australian casualties, with Papuan litter bearers. (DA photograph)

On hearing of the condition of the 2d Battalion after its crossing of the Owen Stanleys, the 32d Division commander, Maj. Gen. Edwin F. Harding, was determined not to allow any of his other battalions to become so debilitated by the terrain of New Guinea. He requested that the rest of his troops be airlifted to the north slope of the mountains; Blamey and MacArthur quickly approved. In an intelligence gift to the Allies, a missionary had come forward with news of an airfield near Fasari, a village about forty-two miles south of Pongani. Beginning 8 November the 126th Infantry flew to Fasari and Pongani, and then moved inland to Bofu, fourteen miles from the Buna perimeter. At the same time, the 128th Infantry moved up the coast from Pongani to Embogo, only seven miles from the enemy. Meanwhile on the Kokoda Trail, the 7th Australian Infantry Division pushed the enemy down the mountains toward the coast. The Allies were trapping the Japanese against the sea.

Retreating enemy forces set up a beachhead defense stretching some sixteen miles along the coast and seven miles inland. The Japanese held several important locations within their perimeter: Gona Village, the west anchor of the enemy beachhead; Sanananda Point in the center; Duropa Plantation, the eastern anchor of the beachhead; Buna Village; Buna Mission, the prewar Australian administrative center; and two airfields. Also inside the perimeter lay more swamps and streams than appeared on Allied maps and more enemy troops than SWPA estimated. In a major intelligence blunder, Allied staffs told frontline commanders that they faced no more than 1,500 to 2,000 enemy and could expect the Japanese to surrender about 1 December. In fact, some 6,500 enemy held the beachhead.

Coconut log bunker with fire trench entrance in the Buna Village area.(DA photograph)

SWPA planned a straight-ahead assault on Buna-Sanananda across a front of some twenty miles. The Girua River divided the area of operations into two roughly equal parts, with Maj. Gen. George A. Vasey's 7th Australian Infantry Division on the left, or west, and Harding's U.S. 32d Division on the right. Over General Harding's objection, the U.S.126th Infantry reinforced the Australian 7th. Since the 32d Division had only two regiments instead of three when the assault began, the transfer of the 126th meant a 50 percent loss of fighting capacity. Harding could send only one regiment, the U.S. 128th, against Buna, and he would have no division reserve.

The attack began the morning of 16 November on both sides of the Girua. On the left, the 7th Australian Infantry Division met no enemy opposition the first two days but found other problems nearly as serious. The Australians soon outran their supply line and had to go on short rations; heat exhaustion and the myriad fevers of New Guinea steadily reduced troop strength. When the first shots were exchanged on the 18th, the troops found that every approach avoiding the swamps and streams brought them into enemy machine-gun-fire lanes. Despite this formidable defense, and without artillery support, the Australians pushed ahead. In three days of fighting they lost 204 dead and wounded, and they were still in no position to take Gona. Two days later, after brief air and artillery preparations, troops of the 7th reached the innermost defenses of Gona but were quickly pushed back. On the division's right a separate thrust at Sanananda fell short, though troops managed to set a roadblock behind the enemy.

In the American sector even more trouble developed. Hoping to use the coastal waters on its right to relieve problems of supply and troop exhaustion, the 32d Division loaded its ammunition, rations, radios, and heavy weapons on luggers. After questionable planning, the heavily laden boats set out with no air cover. Japanese Zeroes soon spotted the boats and in strafing attacks sank all but one. Now the 128th had to push on without prospect of resupply, and on the 19th took its first fire from nearly invisible defensive positions. Two days later Fifth Air Force planes twice bombed the 128th Infantry troops, killing ten and wounding fourteen. Despite these setbacks, the 32d Division mounted several local and three major attacks against Japanese positions. The return of the 2d Battalion of the 126th Infantry to American control on 23 November raised hopes of success, but the 32d Division failed to dislodge the enemy.

The November attacks revealed with painful clarity a Japanese strength: tenacity in defense. This strength reflected both a selfless fanaticism in support of imperial expansion and a mastery of field engineering. The Japanese simply made better use of the local terrain. Aware of the high water table of New Guinea coastal areas, the Americans relied on the fact that the enemy could not construct below-ground defenses. The Japanese proved the fallacy of Allied thinking by cutting trees and raising berms above ground, then concealing strongpoints with kunai grass and tying them together with interlocking fields of fire. As a result, approaching troops could not see the enemy bunkers until they were only about twenty feet away, by which time the Japanese had opened fire. Without armor or heavy artillery and air support, infantrymen could only crawl up to each bunker and jam hand grenades into firing slits, a process both slow and costly in casualties.

Disabled Bren gun carriers at Duropa Plantation. (DA photograph)

The Southwest Pacific Area was deeply concerned at the failure of the 32d Division's November attacks. Two weeks of offensive operations had produced 492 American casualties, and the enemy still held its positions. Staff officers wondered how much longer the underfed and diseased troops could keep fighting the Japanese and the climate of New Guinea. The international alliance that SWPA represented also showed strain, as Australians and Americans traded disparaging comments on their respective fighting abilities.

Changes were called for, and General MacArthur set them in motion. Summoning General Eichelberger, he bluntly told the corps commander, "Take Buna or don't come back alive!" Eichelberger immediately went forward to see conditions for himself. The enemy in front of the 32d Division now held a pocket stretching some four miles from Buna Village on the left to Duropa Plantation on the right. The fighting concentrated at two points along the enemy line, Urbana front on the extreme left and Warren front on the extreme right. Observing Urbana front on 2 December, Eichelberger found that the troops were exhausted, starved, feverish, and in tatters. Even worse, they had lost spirit, with some beginning to believe that the Japanese in their heavily timbered bunkers were unbeatable. Too many troops sat in rear-echelon aid stations on "rest" status. Although the I Corps commander considered the American troops still able to mount attacks, he saw much evidence that seemed to confirm the rumor he had heard in Port Moresby: that the 32d Division was near the breaking point.

Japanese Bunker in the Duropa Plantation. Cpl. Charles Claridge of Reedsburg, Wisconsin, is looking at the entrance

Eichelberger neither hesitated nor let personal feelings stand in his way. He immediately relieved General Harding, an old friend from the West Point class of 1909, as well as the commanders of both the Urbana and the Warren fronts. Preparations for the next round of attacks then went forward with several reasons for optimism. After more than a month of operating under combat conditions, the supply situation had improved noticeably. The troops had more food and some time to rest, and as a result their morale rose. The combat support situation, too, had improved. Eichelberger could expect more bombing sorties from Fifth Air Force and more artillery preparation. Best of all, the Americans could attack behind a spearhead of five Bren gun carriers, tracked vehicles with machine guns that might at last give the infantry an effective weapon against the nearly impregnable enemy bunkers.

The attack began in both the Australian and American sectors on 5 December. It soon developed into another Allied disaster. Within twenty minutes all the Bren gun carriers had been knocked out, and attacking infantry stalled all along the line. Now Eichelberger had experienced for himself the Japanese tenacity in defense. He ordered the troops on the Warren front to maintain positions and conduct local patrols, but the Urbana front remained very active. Showing the persistence necessary to match that of the Japanese, the 2d Battalion of the 126th mounted twelve attacks against enemy bunkers during 8-11 December, but it could not break through. For the first time, however, the Americans had a fresh reserve to draw on. With the recent arrival of the 127th Infantry, the 32d Division finally had its full complement of three infantry regiments. The 3d Battalion of the 127th now took over on the Urbana front.

Interior of a Japanese Bunker in the Duropa Plantation.
Note the sand-filled oil drums used to reinforce the palm-log structure.

In the Australian sector, the 7th Infantry Division kept up the pressure, assisted by Americans from the 126th Infantry who were showing commendable tenacity themselves in holding a roadblock before Sanananda against repeated Japanese attacks. On 9 December the 7th built up enough momentum to push through the enemy defenses and take Gona Village, the western anchor of the Japanese perimeter. The Australians had given the Allies their first major victory since Milne Bay in early September. Good news soon followed from the Urbana front. On 14 December the U.S. 3d Battalion overran Buna Village, pushing the remaining enemy into Buna Mission.

After the failure of the 5 December attack, Eichelberger decided that to have any chance of success he would have to change tactics. Fortunately the supply establishment at Port Moresby supported his determination: the tanks Harding had requested in November were finally on the way forward. They would spearhead the attack over the drier terrain of Warren front. With the new tanks came two fresh Australian battalions to reinforce the U.S. 128th Infantry. Australian Brigadier George F. Wootten would command the next series of Warren front attacks.

Anticipating Allied attacks, the Japanese conducted resupply missions by sea at night. Despite the best efforts of the Fifth Air Force, the enemy managed to put ashore during December about 1,300 fresh troops with supplies at several points west of Gona. These troops then made their way at night to Sanananda and Buna Mission.

Firing Pits and Bunker Entrances, Buna Mission.

The attack from Warren front began early on 18 December. Following a ten-minute air and artillery preparation, Wootten sent his new combined arms team ahead. The tanks immediately proved their worth by allowing infantrymen to get inside the enemy perimeter where, by enveloping successive bunkers, they overcame the opposition. The Allies had finally evolved the tactic to defeat Japanese bunker complexes. Over the next ten days the Warren force swept westward along the coast and reclaimed two airfields.

On the Urbana front, where the terrain did not support tanks, the fighting remained a desperate tree-by-tree, bunker-by-bunker struggle. Extremes of heroism were called for, and the troops responded. On the day before Christmas, Company I, 127th Infantry, had just cleaned out an enemy bunker only to be pinned down by a supporting strongpoint nearby. When 1st Sgt. Elmer J. Burr saw a hand grenade land next to his company commander, he immediately threw himself on it and absorbed the explosion with his own body. For his heroism Sergeant Burr received the first Medal of Honor awarded in the campaign. Later the same day Sgt. Kenneth E. Gruennert of Company L, 127th Infantry, volunteered to knock out two enemy bunkers that were holding up his company's advance. Crawling forward alone, he killed all the enemy in the first bunker by throwing grenades through the firing slits. Although severely wounded, Gruennert bandaged himself and set out against the second bunker. Throwing his grenades with great precision, the sergeant routed the enemy from their position. But before he could call his comrades forward, he was mortally wounded by snipers. For eliminating these two bunkers Sergeant Gruennert received the second Medal of Honor of the campaign.

By 28 December the Warren force closed with the Urbana force and accomplished a complete envelopment of the enemy. In coordinated attacks from 31 December to 2 January, the two forces met and flushed the Japanese from the jungle. As the Japanese swam toward remaining enemy enclaves to the west, machine guns fired on them from the beach, and aircraft came in for strafing runs.

Native Stretcher Bearers with Wounded American.
On the trail from the Buna Front to Simemi.

Now only Sanananda remained in Japanese hands. This lone enemy bastion consisted of one prepared position on the coast and several pockets of troops who had retreated from Gona and Buna. Units participating in the final offensive were now augmented by the U.S. 163d Infantry, the first regiment of the 41st Division to see action in the Pacific. Over the next twenty days the Allies overcame Japanese resistance with repeated artillery barrages, tank assaults, and infantry envelopments. The only slowdown in the Allied advance occurred when the enemy knocked out three tanks with special ammunition—ammunition that intelligence officers had reported as totally expended. The poor state of the enemy contributed as much to their defeat as did the Allies' gradually improving tactics. Without resupply for weeks, Japanese troops had only a few cartridges per man, and their rice ration ran out during the second week of January. When Allied troops broke through the last enemy defense line, they found evidence of cannibalism. Japanese resistance at Sanananda came to an end on 22 January, six months to the day after the Papua Campaign began.

Additional Sources:

home.st.net.au/~dunn/ozatwar

Analysis

The United States Army learned much from the Papua Campaign but at a high cost. Allied losses totaled 8,546 killed and wounded. Of those, the 32d Division lost 687 killed in action and 2,161 wounded or lost from other causes. The lack of leaders experienced in jungle fighting accounted in part for these losses. Because the campaign was the Army's first in a world war tropical theater, everyone involved had to learn while under fire. The last combat experience of the Allied leaders had ended in 1918. The Australians had spent recent years in the Middle East. Only General MacArthur, with years of duty in the Philippines, brought to the campaign any familiarity with jungle fighting, but as theater commander he exercised leadership far from the front. The necessarily trial-and-error tactical approach of the Allies in the early stages of the campaign inevitably delayed the victory.

Supplies for Headquarters.
Native carriers and guards on the trail from Oro Bay to the Buna Front.

The campaign also made serious training deficiencies obvious. The beginning of the campaign revealed that the American troops were insufficiently hardened for extended forced marches, poorly schooled in the techniques of night patrolling and assaulting fortified positions, and unprepared for operations in a tropical environment. Too much had to be learned by experimentation, such as how to read terrain to avoid swamps or how to identify locations of enemy bunkers and fields of fire. In future campaigns American troops would have to complete arduous marches like that over the Owen Stanley Mountains and still be able to mount assaults or turn back enemy counterattacks. Some of the deficiencies in training could be laid to the radical changes in deployment plans experienced by the 32d Division. After its training on the east coast had been interrupted by orders to board ship for the British Isles, the division was turned around and sent cross-country to the west coast to embark for the Southwest Pacific. In Australia the division again started a training schedule, only to see it too interrupted when the Japanese advanced toward Port Moresby. Although SWPA staff officers considered the 32d Division not yet ready for combat, they rushed the unit to New Guinea. For the 32d Division there had been too much time spent in transit and not enough in actual training.

Combat support in nearly all facets fell short of needs during much of the campaign. Military intelligence, the basis of all operational planning, failed to provide a true understanding of the enemy on New Guinea. In two notable failures, SWPA underestimated the Japanese determination to take Port Moresby and, later, the number of enemy troops at Buna. These two errors led to the unrealistic expectation that the campaign could be completed by 1 December. Also, for too long MacArthur believed better leadership could overcome any obstacle presented by enemy or terrain.

American Light Tanks Manned by Australians.
A tank stalled in the mud is being hauled out. Duropa Plantation, 21 December.

Another glaring lack was operational fires to support attacking infantry. Ground officers argued long and loud against the prevailing SWPA attitude on artillery support, an attitude summarized by General Kenney when he said, "The artillery in this theater flies." The result of this bias in favor of air power was a chronic shortage of on-call artillery fire that made the work of attacking infantry units much more difficult. During the failed November attacks, the 32d Division on the Warren front had only eight Australian 25-pounders and two 3.7-inch mountain howitzers in addition to the 60-mm. and 81-mm. mortars normally carried by battalions, and on the Urbana front it had only four 25-pounders in addition to the mortars. Only one 105-mm. howitzer was used during the entire campaign.

In the absence of heavier artillery, tanks would have greatly aided infantry advances in the early months of the campaign. Attacking troops badly needed a weapon to help them overcome well-prepared Japanese defensive positions, and tanks would have been the best choice. Despite the swampy terrain, tanks had shown their value in the December attacks on the Warren front. At the very least, tanks held the promise of reducing, in a matter of minutes, enemy positions that could for days hold units armed only with rifles and hand grenades. In November General Harding requested tanks he knew to be at Milne Bay, but instead he received only the ineffective Bren gun carriers. Not until late in the campaign did SWPA send tanks to the battlefronts.

Offensive Action in Buna Mission.
Men of G Company, 128th Infantry, firing into Japanese bunker.

Air support was also inadequate, and it was often poorly coordinated with ground units. Not only did aircraft bomb friendly units several times, they also on occasion missed targets entirely. The Fifth Air Force also gave a low priority to the protection of supply lines, with the result that coastal tuggers were run ashore or sunk on several occasions. At the same time, however, air squadrons performed valuable service in delivering fresh troops and supplies over the Owen Stanleys to battlefronts and in evacuating the sick and the wounded to Port Moresby. Troop airlifts allowed entire regiments to minimize the debilitating effects of mountainous terrain and tropical climate.

Naval gunfire and aircraft could have partially compensated for the lack of artillery and land-based air support, but the enemy's presence and a support mission in the Solomons reduced the availability of such support. Twice Navy ships withdrew from the southwest Pacific area in response to the Japanese fleet movements. Both of these withdrawals reflected the Navy's reluctance to expose its carriers and transports to enemy air squadrons based at Rabaul. General MacArthur opposed the withdrawals because they exposed friendly units ashore to enemy air attack and delayed ship-to-shore movement of troops and supplies. In search of more reliable air and amphibious support, MacArthur decided to organize a new unit for future campaigns: the engineer special brigade. These brigades would soon carry troops and equipment ashore, organize beaches, and construct airfields.

Buna Mission after the Battle.

The generally unreliable supply situation during the campaign seriously damaged troop morale, already threatened by the climate of New Guinea. Troops who had to carry most of their supplies on their backs, who opened tins of meat only to find it rancid, who could not drink the water all around them because they had no purification equipment, and who ran out of ammunition soon became exhausted, demoralized, hungry, and vulnerable to disease. The 32d Division's experience with illness shows how the climate became an adversary itself. Of the 10,825 men in the division, 7,125 became sick at some time, an extraordinary rate of 66 percent.

Airdrops and coastal vessels introduced more supply problems than they solved. The best solution was more airfields closer to battlefronts. When engineer special brigades became available for future campaigns, aircraft could bring fresh supplies to engaged units even if the battle raged only a few hundred yards ahead. Resupply pauses after assaults could be much reduced, allowing attacking infantry to maintain pressure on the enemy.

The Papua Campaign made clear that U.S. Army units committed to combat in the summer of 1942 were insufficiently trained, equipped, led, and supported in comparison to an enemy that had been fighting for five years. Under the imperative of combat, new leaders had emerged, and new battle tactics and support techniques had been developed. But the Army would not have long to wait or far to go before testing its new leaders, tactics, and techniques. The Japanese had been defeated at the eastern end of Papua, but they had not abandoned New Guinea. Sizable Japanese forces remained at several points west of Buna, and reinforcements and supplies were still coming in from Rabaul. The next battle was only days away.

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on November 30:
538 St Gregory of Tours chronicler/bishop
1466 Andrea Doria Genoese statesman/admiral
1554 Philip Sidney England, poet/statesman/soldier (Arcadia)
1667 Jonathan Swift Engl, satirist (Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal)
1793 Johann Lukas Schonlein helped establish scientific medicine
1810 Oliver Fisher Winchester rifle maker (Winchester)
1817 Theodor Mommsen Germany, historian/writer (Nobel 1902)
1835 Samuel Clemens [Mark Twain], author (Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn)
1863 Andres Bonifacio leader of 1896 Philippine revolt against Spain
1874 Sir Winston Churchill (C) British PM (1940-45, 1951-55, Nobel 1953)
1894 Ture Rangstrom Stockholm Sweden, composer/critic (Kronbruden)
1898 Roy (Link) Lyman NFL tackle (Chicago Bears)
1907 Jacques Barzun France, author (The House of Interlect)
1912 Gordon Parks film director/writer (Learning Tree)
1913 John K.M. McCaffery Moscow Idaho, TV host (One Minute Please)
1915 Angier Biddle Duke NYC, US Ambassador (Spain)
1915 Henry Taube chemist (Nobel 1983)
1920 Virginia Mayo St Louis MO, actress (Out of the Blue, White Heat)
1923 Efrem Zimbalist Jr actor (77 Sunset Strip, FBI, Scruples)
1924 Allan Sherman parody singer/songwriter (Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah)
1924 Shirley Chisholm (D-Rep-NY), 1st black congresswoman/presidential candidate
1926 Richard Crenna Los Angeles CA, actor (Rambo, Summer Rental, Sand Pebbles)
1927 Robert Guillaume St Louis MO, actor (Benson, Soap)
1928 Chic Hecht (Sen-R-NV)
1928 Rex Reason Berlin Germany, actor (This Island Earth)
1929 Joan Ganz Cooney Phoenix AZ, TV exec (Children's TV Workshop)
1930 G Gordon Liddy Watergate felon, radio talk-show host
1931 Gunther Herbig Usti-nad-Labem Czech, conductor (East Berlin Orchestra)
1931 Jack Ging Alva Ok, actor (11th Hour, Ripcord, Tales of Wells Fargo)
1031 Davey Jones rocker (Monkees-Daydream Believer, Last Train To Clarksville, I'm A Believer)
1931 Jack Sheldon Jacksonville FL, actor (Run Buddy Run, Merv Griffin)
1933 Linwood C Ivey NC, (Mayor-Garysburg NC)
1936 Abbie Hoffman aka Free, Yippie/activist/author (Steal this Book)
1937 Paul Stookey Baltimore MD, singer (Peter, Paul & Mary-Wedding Song)
1937 Richard Threlkeld newscaster (ABC-TV)
1939 Walter Weller Vienna Austria, conductor (Vienna Tonkusteler Orchestra)
1947 David Mamet US playwright/director (Speed the Plow, House of Games)
1949 Arthur Lee Washington Jr one of FBI's most wanted
1950 Kathryn Witt Miami FL, actress (Pam-Flying High, Lenny)
1950 Margaret Whitton Philadelphia PA, actress (Barbara-Hometown, Major League)
1950 Paul Westphal NBA guard (Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns)
1951 Dian Parkinson TV model (Price is Right)
1952 Mandy Patinkin actor/singer (Yentl, Alien Nation)
1953 Shuggie (Johnny) Otis, Jr. (musician)
1954 June Pointer singer (Pointer Sisters-I'm So excited)
1955 Billy Idol [William Broad], rocker (White Wedding)
1959 Sylvia Hanika Munich West Germany, tennis player (Avon-1982)
1962 Bo Jackson baseball/football player (Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Raiders)
1969 Carrie Jean Yazel Huntington Beach CA, playmate (May, 1991)

Deaths which occurred on November 30:
30 -BC- Cleopatra Egyptian queen commits suicide(made an asp of herself)
1016 Edmund II Ironsides, King of the Saxons (1016), dies at 27
1631 Rabbi Samuel Eliezer ben Judah ha-levi Edels dies
1694 Marcello Malpighi father of microscopic anatomy, dies
1900 Oscar Wilde Irish author, dies in Paris
1964 Don Redman orchestra leader (Sugar Hill Times), dies at 64
1973 Bruce Yarnell Los Angeles CA, actor (Outlaws), dies at 35
1979 Zeppo Marx dies at 78
1981 Robert H Harris actor (Jake-The Goldbergs), dies at 72
1987 Arthur H Dean lawyer/advisor to FDR, dies at 89
1990 Norman Cousins editor (Saturday Review), dies at 75
1996 Tiny Tim singer with the falsetto warble and ukulele ("Tiptoe Through the Tulips" ), dies at 64

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 RICHARDSON STEPHEN G.---SEATTLE WA.
1967 KUSHNER FLOYD H.---DANVILLE VA.
[03/16/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1968 BADER ARTHUR E.---ATLANTIC CITY NJ.
[REMAINS RETURNED 7-31-89 ID 2/08/90]
1968 FITTS RICHARD A.---ABINGTON MA.
REMAINS RETURNED 04/89]
1968 LA BOHN GARY R.---WIXON MI.
[REMAINS RETURNED 3/08/89 ID 2/08/90]
1968 MEIN MICHAEL H.---CAPE VINCENT NY.
[REMAINS RETURNED 3/08/89 ID 2/08/90]
1968 SCHOLZ KLAUS D.---AMARILLO TX.
[REMAINS RETURNED 3/08/89 ID 2/08/90]
1968 STACKS RAYMOND C.---MEMPHIS TN.
[REMAINS RETURNED 3/08/89 ID 2/08/90]
1968 TOOMEY SAMUEL K. III---INDEPENDENCE MO.
[REMAINS RETURNED 3/08/89 ID 2/08/90]
1970 STRINGER JOHN C. II---HAZARD KY.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
306 St Marcellus I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1523 Amsterdam bans assembly of heretics
1554 England reconciles with Pope Julius III
1630 16,000 inhabitants of Venice die this month of plague
1648 English army captures King Charles I
1678 Roman Catholics banned from English parliament
1782 Britain signs agreement recognizing US independence
1803 Spain cedes her claims to Louisiana Territory to France
1804 Impeachment trial of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase begins
1864 Battle of Franklin, Tennessee
1866 Work begins on 1st US underwater highway tunnel, Chicago
1885 The opera "Le Cid" is produced (Paris)
1886 1st commercially successful AC electric power plant opens, Buffalo
1887 1st indoor softball game (Chicago)
1906 President Theodore Roosevelt publicly denounces segregation of Japanese schoolchildren in San Francisco
1907 Pike Place Market dedicated in Seattle
1924 1st photo facsimile transmitted across Atlantic by radio
1936 London's Crystal Palace (built 1851), destroyed by fire
1939 USSR invades Finland over a border dispute
1940 1st game of only 2-game Grey Cup (Ottawa 8, Toronto Balmy Beach 2)
1941 101 year old Nyack-Tarrytown (NY) ferry makes its last run
1947 Day after UN decree for Israel, Jewish settlements attacked
1948 Baseball's Negro National League disbands
1948 Soviets set up a separate municipal government in East Berlin
1949 Chinese Communists captured Chungking
1954 1st meteorite ( 8 lb ) known to strike a woman (Liz Hodges-Sylacauga AL)
1958 1st guided missile destroyer launched, Dewey, Bath, Me
1959 Joe Foss named 1st commissioner of AFL
1961 USSR vetoes Kuwait's application for UN membership
1962 U Thant of Burma elected 3rd Secretary-General of UN unanimously
1964 USSR launches Zond 2 towards Mars; no data returned
1966 Barbados gains independence from Britain (National Day)
1966 Radio time signal WWV moves from Greenbelt, MD to Boulder, CO
1967 Julie Nixon & David Eisenhower announce their engagement
1967 Kuria Muria islands ceded by Britain to Oman
1967 People's Rep of South Yemen (Aden) gains independence from Britain
1970 George Harrison releases his triple album set "All Things Must Pass"
1972 BBC bans Wings "Hi, Hi, Hi"
1972 Illegal fireworks factory explodes killing 15 (Rome Italy)
1974 20th time Islanders shut-out (3-0 vs Canucks)
1975 Dahomey becomes Benin
1979 Ted Koppel becomes anchor of nightly news on Iranian Hostages (ABC)
1981 Porn star John Holmes arrested on fugitive charges
1982 STS-6 vehicle moves to launch pad
1982 US sub Thomas Edison collides with US Navy destroyer in So China Sea
1983 Denver Nugget coach Doug Moe, hopelessly behind, advise team to let Blazers break their scoring record
1983 Radio Shack announces the Tandy Model 2000 computer (80186 chip)
1988 Cyclone lashes Bangladesh, Eastern India; 317 killed
1988 NYC furrier sues Mike Tyson for $92,000 for non payment of purchase
1988 Soviets stop jamming Radio Liberty; 1st time in 38 years
1988 UN General Assembly (151-2) censures US for refusing PLO's Arafat visa
1990 Bush proposes US-Iraq meeting to avoid war
1991 93 cars & 11 truck accident near San Francisco during a dust storm, 17 die
1991 Rob Pilatus, 27, of Milli-Vanilli attempts suicide
1996 Some 150,000 people filled the streets of Belgrade to protest Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
1999 The opening of a 135-nation trade gathering in Seattle was disrupted by at least 40,000 demonstrators, some of whom clashed with police.
2000 Al Gore's lawyers battled for his political survival in the Florida and U.S. supreme courts; meanwhile, GOP lawmakers in Tallahassee moved to award the presidency to George W. Bush in case the courts did not by appointing their own slate of electors.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Barbados : Independence Day (1966)
Benin : National Day
Iran : Qadir Khom Festival
Philippines : Bonifacio Day/Heroes' Day (1863)
Upper Volta : Youth Day.
Yemen PDR : Independence Day (1967)
US : Travelers With Disabilities Awareness Week Begins
US : Stay Home Because You're Well Day
International Creative Child & Adult Month

Religious Observances
Christian : Advent-start of church year (4 Sundays till Christmas)
Protestant : Bible Sunday
RC, Luth, Ang-NZ : Feast of St Andrews Day, patron of Scotland

Religious History
1215 The Fourth Lateran Council closed, under Innocent III. It was this council that made first official use of the term "transubstantiation," with reference to the Eucharist (Lord's Supper).
1530 German reformer Martin Luther remarked: 'Whenever I happen to be prevented by the press of duties from observing my hour of prayer, the entire day is bad for me.'
1554 Roman Catholicism was (briefly) restored to England, under the reign of Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. In the process, "Bloody Mary" had Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and nearly 300 other Protestant leaders burned at the stake.
1729 Birth of Samuel Seabury, first bishop of the American Protestant Episcopal Church. (Following the American Revolution, Seabury helped formulate the constitution which made the American Protestant Episcopal Church independent and autonomous from the Church of England.)
1894 In Naperville, Illinois, seven groups of the Evangelical Association withdrew from the organization to form the United Evangelical Church. (In 1922 the two denominations reunited.)

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Faith is putting all your eggs in God's basket, then counting your blessings before they hatch."

Question of the day...
What was the best thing before sliced bread?

Murphys law of the day...
Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.

Little known fact #981...
Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means "the capital" in the Korean language.

1939 USSR invades Finland over a border dispute

The Winter War erupted on 30 November 1939, when Stalin unleashed his Red Army in an all-out assault against Finland. In August that year Stalin and Hitler had divided eastern Europe between them in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, leaving Finland isolated in the Soviet sphere of influence. During the fall Stalin demanded that Finland cede key parts of the country to the USSR. When Finland refused to meet all his demands Stalin unleashed his armies.

In the winter dawn of 30 November four Soviet Armies with 23 divisions - some 460,000 men with over 2,000 tanks - began advancing across the length of Finland's 1,200 km long eastern border. Their objective was to occupy the entire territory of Finland by the end of the year, installing Moscow's puppet 'Terijoki Government' in Helsinki, and establishing a new 'Democratic Republic of Finland'. Their troops were issued with detailed written warnings not to cross into Sweden once they had reached Finland's western border, and the 7. Army included a military band for the victory parade in Helsinki.

On December 3, 1939, three days after the Red Army’s unprovoked attack on Finland, the newly appointed foreign minister, Väinö Tanner, spoke to American radio listeners in a live broadcast from Helsinki.

Few at the time expected the tiny Finnish nation of 3.6 million to survive. But despite the odds Finland reacted with desperate determination. On the one hand the country was determined to fight, and the full field army of some 160,000 men had been mobilized and sent eastwards into position along the front during the fall. On the other hand Finland also was grimly prepared for the worst, and began sending her national treasure - her children - to safety in Sweden, to cover the possibility of a Soviet victory and Stalin's national extermination programmes. Leaving at night from blacked out harbours along Finland's western coast, in the gaps between wailing sirens warning of Soviet bombers, none of the thousands of departing children or their parents remaining behind knew whether they would see each other again.

Four months later, after the hardest fighting seen in Europe since the first World War and massive Soviet reinforcements, Finland's lines remained unbroken, while the Red Army had lost up to 400.000 soldiers in casualties. Finland's soldiers were now down to their last bullets, but Stalin did not know that, and he was running out of time. With the spring thaws approaching, his forces risked becoming bogged down in the extensive wetland forests along the front, while politically every week lost increased his humiliation and vulnerability vis a vis a vengeful Japan in the Far East, an ambitious Hitler in the west, and a Britain and France that were considering intervention on Finland's side.

In early March Stalin conceded defeat, abandoning his occupation plans and settling for a compromise agreement, leaving Finland independent. With the signing of the Peace Agreement on 13 March Finland had to cede 10 % of her territory to the USSR, but Finland herself remained free.

The Winter War is one of the milestones in the history of independent Finland, and the conclusions subsequently drawn by Finland's political leaders, along with the lessons of the Continuation War with Russia between 1941 - 1944, became the foundation for Finland's security policy during the Cold War.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.